Matrix Games Forums

I personally think that Shannon should stop coming to this forum at all. That way, he has more time to code, and everybody has a bigger shot at seeing this game FINALLY come out.

It's 2011. If this game isn't released this year I might give up on it. Thankfully I have WitE and WitP:AE PBEMs to keep me busy.

ORIGINAL: Terminus

I personally think that Shannon should stop coming to this forum at all. That way, he has more time to code, and everybody has a bigger shot at seeing this game FINALLY come out.

You know if he followed your advice he would be hammered by more people than he is now.

More ideas like this one and I will have to serve BBQ Terminus at our next management meeting...[:D][:D][:D]

ORIGINAL: Terminus

I personally think that Shannon should stop coming to this forum at all. That way, he has more time to code, and everybody has a bigger shot at seeing this game FINALLY come out.

Most of the monthly status report is taken from stuff I have written/prepared previously, either for the beta testers or for Matrix Games management. In fact, the monthly report serves as a primary communication from me to Matrix about the project.

Assembling the report helps me understand what has happened in the past month, when the days all seem to run together and I lose track of what day of the week it is.[&:]

In general, keeping in touch with the customer base is important for my sanity.

Ah, well here we go! Years too late but at least now sanity prevails, and the imbecilic notion that there is only one human being on the entire planet capable of programming this game has been abandoned.

I wonder who shook Steve to his senses?

ORIGINAL: flipperwasirish

ORIGINAL: Terminus

I personally think that Shannon should stop coming to this forum at all. That way, he has more time to code, and everybody has a bigger shot at seeing this game FINALLY come out.

You know if he followed your advice he would be hammered by more people than he is now.

More ideas like this one and I will have to serve BBQ Terminus at our next management meeting...[:D][:D][:D]

But he wouldn't SEE it, which is kinda the point.

I would like to add my small voice to support the addition of another body to work on this project.
Welldone.
More brains working has got to be a good thing.
good luck.

I have been following this forum ever since Matrix took on this project and played WIF from the beginning. I am by nature a very patient person but I must say that this project has gone on far too long. You can tell that many others are losing interest because the postings on this forum have dropped significantly down over the years to the point there is only 1 or 2 per day and some days none.
Matrix publishes quality games but this game needs to be published by the summer and the AI can wait as a follow up.

Steve - push for the summer or you risk losing even die hard fans of WIF's like me.

Well I've been following the progress for years and I cannot wait however long it takes.

ORIGINAL: finchen

I stumbled across this 1 week ago , and can honestly say that had I found it 2, 3 or 5 years ago I would have had suffert extreme stress traumata meanwhile, I used to play WiF for years, but now having moved to another country and beeing married with children I lack a) people in my neighbourhood to play with and b) space to setup and leave the map for a couple of weeks without someone potentially destroying it.
A computer game version would be the answer to all my hopes.
I would like to offer my help to get the game done, besides having some WiF experience, I am quite familliar with WW2 History and am a professional software engeneer, having programmed in Delphi until 2006 (Delphi 7 then).

If there is anything I can do within my free time, pls tell me.

That the best news of the years if real support can be given. Steve need help.

ORIGINAL: Skanvak

ORIGINAL: finchen

I stumbled across this 1 week ago , and can honestly say that had I found it 2, 3 or 5 years ago I would have had suffert extreme stress traumata meanwhile, I used to play WiF for years, but now having moved to another country and beeing married with children I lack a) people in my neighbourhood to play with and b) space to setup and leave the map for a couple of weeks without someone potentially destroying it.
A computer game version would be the answer to all my hopes.
I would like to offer my help to get the game done, besides having some WiF experience, I am quite familliar with WW2 History and am a professional software engeneer, having programmed in Delphi until 2006 (Delphi 7 then).

If there is anything I can do within my free time, pls tell me.

That the best news of the years if real support can be given. Steve need help.

Warspite1

You mean best news for days - did you see that Mitchell is assisting Steve aleady (see monthly report)?

Note sure if anyone has noticed, but the January status report requested a call to arms:

"Please let us know what you would like to see in the way of inter-player communication support."

Keep up the good work.

ORIGINAL: WIF_Killzone

Note sure if anyone has noticed, but the January status report requested a call to arms:

"Please let us know what you would like to see in the way of inter-player communication support."

Keep up the good work.

Maybe Vassal could be used as an example?

ORIGINAL: warspite1

ORIGINAL: Skanvak

ORIGINAL: finchen

I stumbled across this 1 week ago , and can honestly say that had I found it 2, 3 or 5 years ago I would have had suffert extreme stress traumata meanwhile, I used to play WiF for years, but now having moved to another country and beeing married with children I lack a) people in my neighbourhood to play with and b) space to setup and leave the map for a couple of weeks without someone potentially destroying it.
A computer game version would be the answer to all my hopes.
I would like to offer my help to get the game done, besides having some WiF experience, I am quite familliar with WW2 History and am a professional software engeneer, having programmed in Delphi until 2006 (Delphi 7 then).

If there is anything I can do within my free time, pls tell me.

That the best news of the years if real support can be given. Steve need help.

Warspite1

You mean best news for days - did you see that Mitchell is assisting Steve aleady (see monthly report)?

why the sudden change of heart?

how many people for how long have been asking - why cant someone else give Steve a hand. Has Steve simply got to a point and realised this is two big for 1 man, has somebody said this has to be out of the door by xxxx date, or has Steve listened to the community and thought - hey thats a good idea

ORIGINAL: undercovergeek

ORIGINAL: warspite1

ORIGINAL: Skanvak




That the best news of the years if real support can be given. Steve need help.

Warspite1

You mean best news for days - did you see that Mitchell is assisting Steve aleady (see monthly report)?

why the sudden change of heart?

how many people for how long have been asking - why cant someone else give Steve a hand. Has Steve simply got to a point and realised this is two big for 1 man, has somebody said this has to be out of the door by xxxx date, or has Steve listened to the community and thought - hey thats a good idea

The answers are rather simple.

1 - I have been trying (unsuccessfully) to get another programmer to work on NetPlay for the past 4 years. In the end I did a lot of the beginning work myself. Mitchell has improved upon my start and has the code for MWIF's internet communications ready for serious beta testing.

2 - But to go into the depths of the MWIF code means climbing an enormous learning curve. Besides the programmer having to acquire all that knowledge, there is also the time required by me to provide assistance for him understanding what the code does. Over the years (ye gads!) I have: inserted tens of thousands of comments (CWIF had 2 comment lines), renamed hundreds of variables and functions (so they make more sense - CWIF had hundreds of routines called Check and Fix), redesigned dozens of fundamental data structures, and restructured dozens of major logic sequences. These changes were so I could understand what the code does every time I come back to reread it. But the net result is that the level of difficulty in understanding the code has been reduced 2 or 3 orders of magnitude.

As it stands now MWIF has 5 times the number of modules (Pascal files) that CWIF had, because I have fragmented monolithic files into ones that are more focused on sections of the logic. When you want to locate the code for moving naval units, the bulk of it is in a 1000 line file devoted to that task, instead of a 6000 line file that has the code for moving all units, plus a ton of other stuff. Likewise, the code for the processing logic for each phase of the game is spread over 60 modules, one for each phase, rather than combined into a single file, with the code for initialization, processing, and termination of the different phases interleaved. You can think of the CWIF code as analogous to a combination of 60 reference books with all their pages shuffled together. Each page is understandable in its own right, but putting together the sense of any one topic requires searching around and finding all the cross references.

Even now, however, I do not feel comfortabe with having someone else make changes to the player interface code, because it is still very delicate (numerous inter-linkages). Unless a person has complete mastery of the overall picture, making changes just causes new bugs to pop up in unexpected places.

3 - The code for different modes of play is mostly distinct from the code for the player interface and the game simulation (e.g., map, units, and rules). So having other people work on NetPlay, PBEM, and the AIO does not require as deep an understanding of the vast majority of the code. I can say that with confidence because one of my redesigns was to make sure that was true.

4 - So the idea of having 4+ people working on the original CWIF code simultaneously was not a good one (in my opinion). A lot of time would have been spent communicating with each other about partially formed impressions as to what the code did. Making changes without keeping everyone else fully informed would have been very dangerous. Maybe 2 people could have been more productive, but no where near times 2. More likely times 1.5 or less. In retrospect, I could now devise a system for dividing the labor efficiently, but there was no way I (or anyone else) could have done so back in 2005.

Thanks, Steve, for yet another year of hard work from you on the MWiF behemoth.
As always, your status reports commenting on the progress are much appreciated - it provides some insight regarding the scope of this massive undertaking, and allows for following the progress step by step.

And it is indeed a massive undertaking! Thanks for enduring!! [:)]

Having lurked across here occasionally over the last 4 years or so, I've always been extremely impressed
that the fans of Steve's computer iteration of World In Flames are so patient. If you go onto almost any
other forum for a game in development, you will find that they consist mostly of people bitching about the
release date or percieved lack of progress.

So I find it a little disappointing that some of that behaviour is creeping into this forum. I don't know Steve
and I'm certainly not the most dedicated WiF player, but I do recognise the guy has practically given up his
life for the last 5 years in order to make a decent computer game for the rest of us that are interested in
this genre.

I think it's generally recognised throughout sport/business/military/life/the universe that the best way to
contribute to a common goal is with positive action or postive support for those performing the action. Any
negativity brought to the party, however heartfelt, is not going to get this particular project finished any
quicker.

Steve, I'm sure this project has ballooned out of all proportion from your initial estimates when you agreed
to take it on. I can only admire your dedication and I truly hope when it's all done and dusted you get the
self-satisfaction and financial reward you deserve.

Regards. Jay.

Warspite1

You mean best news for days - did you see that Mitchell is assisting Steve aleady (see monthly report)?

You got me on this one That are really good news.

Steve gave a good explanation of his logic. We cannot go back in time, so let's all support the new team

Just wondering, is there pretty good idea when this game will be released? Like a "If everything goes according to plan" type deal?

I think there are a 90% chance of a 2011 release .. 

there are still alot of unanswered questions and thing that can go wrong.

I´m a very active beta tester and have been for 3 years.
I´m spending 20-30 hours a week on the game. and I promise you. it is looking really good.